Building block



July 11, 1967 J. w. MITCHELL ETAL 3,330,079

' BUILDING BLOCK Filed Sept. 21, 1964 JOHN J, 54/1 55?! United States Patent 3,330,079 BUILDING BLOCK John W. Mitchell and John J. Gangemi, Edison, NJ. (both of 6 Milton Ave., East Brunswick, NJ. 08816) Filed Sept. 21, 1964, Ser. No. 397,915 1 Claim. (CI. 52-38) Our invention is directed toward building blocks.

It is an object of our invention to provide a new and improved building block which is not only structurally strong and sound but also is Waterproof, decorative and easy to keep clean.

Another object is to provide new and improved building blocks of the character indicated which can be easily manufactured at low cost.

All of the foregoing and still further objects and advantages of our invention will now be explained With reference both to this specification and to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of one form of our invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a second form of our invention;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of a third form of our invention; and

FIGURE 4 is a cross section through 44 of FIG- URE 3.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, there is shown a building block identified generally at and having two parallel cavities or bores 12 extending from top to bottom through the block and separated by a common vertical wall 14.

The top and bottom walls 16 and 18 of block 10 are flat and expose the bores; the two opposite side walls 20 and 22 each have a vertical flange 24; the opposite from and rear walls 26 and 28 are flat and solid. A fiat transparent or translucent or opaque plastic cap or face 30 about inch thick is secured or glued to one of walls 26 or 28 (in this example wall 26) and has the same width and length as this wall. Cap 30 can be colored or colorless.

As shown in FIGURE 2, wall 26 can be removed, and replaced by a cap 30' having thickness equivalent to Wall 3,330,079 Patented July 11, 1967 26 and cap 30 in FIGURE 1. For decorative purposes a separate electric light 40 can be inserted into each bore 12.

As shown in FIGURE 3, the cap of FIGURE 1 can be replaced by a plastic member having in cross section the shape of a V and having an inclined slot 52 in which a color slide or view 54 can be readily inserted or removed therefrom.

While we have described our invention with particular reference to the drawings, our protection is to be limited only by the terms of the claim which follows.

We claim:

A building block comprising a generally rectangular shaped plastic body having top, bottom, front, back and side walls, said side walls being oppositely disposed and said front and back Walls both extending beyond said side walls, said body having first and second parallel vertical bores separated by a common vertical wall, said top and bottom walls being flat and exposing said bores, said front and back walls being flat and solid, and a plastic cap integral with and secured to one of said back and front walls, said cap having the same width and length and in registration with said one of said walls, said cap in cross section having the shape of a V with one side vertically disposed and the other tapering downwardly and a vertically inclined slot in said cap communicating with the top of the cap and extending downwardly therefrom parallel to said other cap side, said slot adapted to receive an insert for ornamentally varying the external appearance of the block.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 776,441 11/ 1904 Veyon 52307 1,541,354 6/1925 Harrison 403 12 1,780,086 10/1930 Linn 52-515 2,542,581 2/ 1951 Schreflier 52307 2,805,448 9/1957 Rubenstein 52309 2,817,619 12/1957 Bickel et al 52309 X FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner. R. S. VERMUT, Assistant Examiner. 

